Landmark Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing brought down by planned implosion

Hundreds braved single-digit temperatures Friday to witness the end of the 94-year-old Mississippi River bridge

Sections of the Black Hawk Bridge drop into the Mississippi River as it is imploded in Lansing on Friday. The 94-year-old bridge will be replaced with a new bridge expected to open in 2027. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

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LANSING — The population of Lansing may have doubled Friday morning as the community and onlookers watched a planned implosion of the 94-year-old Black Hawk Bridge over the Mississippi River.

Everyone had a blast, despite an hourslong wait in single-digit temperatures.

“Really cool,” Isaac Shea, 6, said, seconds after explosive charges brought down the landmark bridge.

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“It was worth being cold, wasn’t it?” said Isaac’s dad Caleb Shea.

The family — Isaac’s brother Emmett, 4, and mother Danielle — came from Elkader to see the explosive demolition to make way for the bridge’s replacement, under construction just yards to the south. They and hundreds of shivering spectators joined most of Lansing’s 959 residents.

“There was a line up the street at 7:00,” said Danielle Shea.

A crowd gathers as sections of the Black Hawk Bridge drop into the Mississippi River as it is imploded in Lansing on Friday. The 94-year-old bridge will be replaced with a new bridge expected to open in 2027. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

“Everybody’s happy to see it,” Raleigh Buckmaster said of the new span. “But there’s nostalgia for the old bridge.”

Buckmaster, Lansing’s veterinarian for 40 years before his retirement, waited about 90 minutes beyond the planned 9:30 a.m. blast time as crews from contractor Kraemer North America prepared the explosive charges and positioned barges and other equipment beyond the 850-foot blast zone.

“It took longer to connect all the wiring to the charges,” Clayton Burke, Iowa Department of Transportation project manager, said after the blast. “It was pretty cold out there.”

The explosion caught many unaware, as a warning siren that organizers said would sound, did not sound.

Honorary detonator Tammy Maneely (right) of Cedar Rapids smiles as Iowa Department of Transportation project manager Clayton Burke explains the process of imploding a bridge as they gather near the Light the Bridge Bridge Lights fundraising campaign thermometer to implode the Black Hawk Bridge into the Mississippi River in Lansing on Friday. The 94-year-old bridge will be replaced with a new bridge expected to open in 2027. Maneely grew up in northeast Iowa and has many memories of the bridge. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

“It’s something we’ll never see again,” said Paul Hoch as he waited with son Lucas, who’s studying physics and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

“We were talking about bridges and what holds them up,” said Hoch, of West Salem, Wisc. “Let’s go see what brings them down.”

The original plan by the Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation was to keep the old bridge open during construction of the new bridge, but sensors and visual inspections showed movement of its supporting piers, likely due to the nearby activity.

After repeated temporary closures ranging from weeks to months, the old Black Hawk Bridge was closed Oct. 20.

Deb Geno of Lansing smiles as she enjoys a hot chocolate at Shep’s Riverside Bar & Grill during a party at the local bar and eatery after watching the Black Hawk Bridge drop into the Mississippi River in Lansing on Friday. The 94-year-old bridge will be replaced with a new bridge expected to open in 2027. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Burke said the earlier-than-expected demolition of the 1931 bridge hasn’t affected construction of its $147 million replacement, due to open in spring 2027.

“Progress is going well,” he said. “They’ve got the new steel structure out over the river.”

The old bridge’s piers remain for now. They’ll be taken down again by explosives after excavators remove much of their concrete structure, in the coming months.

Sections of the Black Hawk Bridge lie in the Mississippi River after the bridge was imploded in Lansing on Friday. The 94-year-old bridge will be replaced with a new bridge expected to open in 2027. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

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